STEPS IN WRITINT TECHNICAL REPORT

A. PLANNING
a. Determine what to talk about, why, and to whom
b. The subject, purpose, and audience are the basic requirements which will
determine what weight of information must be conveyed, what the
structure of the report must be, and what kind of details will be needed to
support the structure
c. 5 guidelines
i. identify the real subject
ii. pinpoint your purpose
iii. aim at an audience
iv. prepare a target statement
v. plan a program

B. COLLECTING INFORMATION
a. If a writer has planned well, he should have good notion of the kind and
amount of information he will need.
b. For most reports, information will consist of:
i. Facts and figures recorded during tests and investigations
ii. Notes taken on books and journals
iii. Response to direct inquiries by interview, questionnaire, and
correspondence
c. direct inquiry includes interview, questionnaire and correspondence

TIPS IN CONSTRUCTING QUESTIONNAIRE

1. Questionnaire should be focused on one factor at a time
2. Questions should be closed, that is, they should allow “yes” or “no”
answers or some simpler response
3. Questions should be clear on first reading and easy to answer with a
minimum of study or reflection
4. Questions should be phrased in simple, unemotional language,
avoiding slanted or suggestive wording.
5. Questions should be arranged in logical sequence, beginning with
the simplest questions (name, address, age, etc.) and maintaining
easy continuity and connection from question to question.
6. Questions on a given questionnaire should be limited to no more
than 15.

d. Correspondence

** Letters and memoranda are common sources of information. The basic

pattern is:
i. The first paragraph, considered the introduction tells why the letter
is being written and summarizes its chief point
 ii. The second paragraph, or the body, discusses or explains the chief
point, and may be expanded into other supporting paragraphs if the
point requires additional information
iii. The closing paragraph, the conclusion, sums up the discussion and
close with:
1. request for recommendation
2. summary of how the discussion is to be interpreted
3. promise of additional communication

C. DESIGNING
It is chiefly concerned with constructing the framework or structural outline of the
report, and arranging the parts to meet design requirements determined by the
reader and purpose.

It involves:
1. OUTLINING
a. It enables the writer to break down his structural points into supporting
parts, and also differentiate between the major and secondary parts
b. It shows the relations between the parts and the relations of the parts to
the whole.
c. It is essential in plotting direction and destination
d. If a good target statement has already been prepared, outlining
becomes a matter of breaking down that statement into structural and
supporting points
e. An outline forces the writer to think first before he writes

2. THE BASIC PATTERN

a. The span of the report should be designed to carry the full weight of
the subject, and it will be supported by structural elements
b. The structural elements will likewise be sustained by supporting
elements, more specific, more complex, and more technical
c. The structural elements are explanations, definitions, or examples,
which reinforced the structural elements.
d. This pattern is otherwise knows as structure-point-support

3. IDENTIFYING THE REPORT FORMAT

a. Report formats are commonly established by company policy, contract
specification, tradition, and sometimes simple or expediency or
practicality.
b. They differ remarkably from organization to organization and often
differ within groups in a given organization
c. There are different formats for different types of reports

D. ROUGH DRAFTING
a. The fourth step in getting organized
b. It involves outlining the entire report then drafting the entire report
 c. It is the best means of clarifying the relationships of parts to the other parts
as a whole
d. The function of a rough draft is to develop the parts of the report in some
detail them show their interconnections. It allows the writer to see how
ideas work together as well as how they work together. It can be
considered as the writer’s model.

E. REVISING
a. Review and revision consist of carefully examining a report structure,
development, and expansion
b. Involves checking for grammatical errors, spelling mistakes and faults of
punctuations
c. Importantly, complete review of the over-all draft.